This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-298674, filed Sep. 29, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IVR-CT apparatus (interventional radiology-computed tomography apparatus)
2. Description of the Related Art
An IVR-CT operation means an operation such as blood vessel formation by catheter manipulation on the basis of X-ray imaging/fluoroscopy of planar images and CT imaging/fluoroscopy of tomographic images. An IVR-CT apparatus is designed for this IVR-CT operation. That is, in a blood vessel imaging room having equipment equivalent to an operation room, an X-ray computer tomographic apparatus (X-ray CT apparatus) is installed together with a circulatory organ X-ray diagnostic apparatus (also called an angiographic apparatus) including a catheter bed. In this IVR-CT apparatus, an operator can check the planar position of a catheter by a planar image and can check the sectional position of the catheter by a tomographic image. Accordingly, the operator can accurately recognize the present position of the catheter and accurately determine the advancing direction.
Unfortunately, the conventional IVR-CT apparatus has the following problem. The catheter bed has a control panel for controlling the up/down movement and longitudinal movement of a table top. A C-shaped arm has a control panel for controlling the strut rotation, slide rotation, tilt, longitudinal movement, side movement, and SID adjustment of the arm. Also, the housing of a CT gantry has a control panel for controlling the tilt angle and front/rear movement of the gantry. By using these control panels, an operator can freely position the table top, C-shaped arm, and CT gantry.
These three control panels, however, are placed physically separated from each other. Therefore, a doctor or an assistant such as a nurse who assists the doctor must go and return between the three control panels, and this lowers the operability. For example, when CT fluoroscopy is to be executed subsequently to X-ray fluoroscopy, an operator starts from the home position, moves along the C-shaped arm control panel, the CT gantry control panel, and the bed table side control panel, and then returns to the home position.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the operability of the positioning of a bed, C-shaped arm, and CT gantry in an IVR-CT apparatus.
According to an aspect of the present invention an IVR-CT apparatus comprises a bed including a table top movable in a longitudinal direction thereof, an X-ray diagnostic apparatus including an arm movably placed in the vicinity of the bed, an X-ray CT apparatus including a CT gantry movably placed in the vicinity of the bed, a position memory for storing a plurality of position data sets containing position data of the arm and position data of the CT gantry, a control panel including a plurality of positioning switches for selecting an arbitrary one of the plurality of position data sets, and a controller configured to control the movements of the arm and the movements of the CT gantry in accordance with the selected position data set.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.